New York – Oct. 31, 2013 – Media spend attributed to multi-screen advertising campaigns is expected to grow from 20 percent of budgets today to 50 percent in the next three years, according to a new study by ANA (Association of National Advertisers) and Nielsen conducted among client-side marketers, agencies and media sellers. Multi-screen campaigns were defined as those that run during a similar timeframe across two or more screens including TV, computer, tablet, mobile phone and digital place-based media.

Emphasizing the significance of multi-screen advertising campaigns, 48 percent said they believe these campaigns are very important in effectively delivering marketing messages today. And a vast majority of those surveyed (88 percent), predict that multi-screen campaigns will be very important in three years.

“Measurement is the biggest issue that will influence the rate of growth for multi-screen advertising,” said Bill Duggan, Group Executive Vice President of the ANA. “The industry needs to adopt measures that are consistent, comparable, and combinable across screens to provide a complete picture of a campaign’s effectiveness.”

“At Nielsen we work closely with our clients to help them deploy consistent, multi-platform measurement against their advertising initiatives, so these findings confirm what we’re already seeing in the market. The potential for marketers and the industry as a whole is significant as multi-platform measurement is embraced in the marketplace,” said Randall Beard, Head of Global Advertiser Solutions for Nielsen.

“We at Nielsen are committed to providing multi-platform measurement capabilities in order to make marketing spend more effective and to grow the industry as a whole. Studies like this done in collaboration with respected industry organizations like the ANA are incredibly useful for those of us who are tasked with developing the next-generation measurement tools that inform the important decisions marketers, agencies and media sellers are making every day,” said Megan Clarken, Executive Vice President of Global Product Leadership for Nielsen.

The Importance of Measurement

Measurement is seen as the biggest issue for multi-screen advertising, as there is a huge gap between existing measurements and how respondents would prefer to measure integrated multi-screen campaigns. The majority (71 percent) said they use a variety of metrics specific to individual screens, but 73 percent said they would prefer to use just one set of metrics across all screens.

“An industry-wide initiative including trade associations and senior leaders from across the advertising ecosystem must be established to help foster standards and best practices for multi-screen campaign measurement and management,” said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of ANA. “This would build on Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS), an industry-wide initiative to advance cross-platform comparability through improved digital advertising metrics and standards."

When asked what specific metrics they would like to use, client-side marketers, agencies, and media sellers consistently identified the need to determine if the advertising was delivered to the desired audience – using reach, frequency, and GRPs (66 percent) – and whether the advertising produced the desired effect – using brand lift metrics to assess awareness, likeability, and purchase intent (67 percent).

According to respondents, other critical elements of integrated multi-screen measurement included:

Consistent methodology across media (73 percent);

Real-time measures for optimization (69 percent); and

Ability to understand the competitive landscape (69 percent).

The Future and Industry Evolution of Multi-Screen Campaigns

There are other areas and opportunities for the future of multi-screen campaigns:

Seventy-one percent noted that they are not currently managing multi-screen campaigns in a fully integrated manner (un-siloed management for TV, mobile, digital, etc.).

In assessing changes to the importance of specific screen types to multi-screen campaigns over the next three years, respondents highlighted a shift from traditional to connected TVs, and a relative decline in PCs versus connected mobile devices (i.e. smartphones and tablets).

There is strong interest in using video as a platform across multiple screens, and opportunity for use of video to grow.

Branded entertainment and native advertising are expected to increase as interest in content marketing is on the rise.

ANA and Nielsen conducted the Integrated Multi-Screen Campaign survey online during July and August of 2013 among a total respondent sample of 274 people. This sample comprised 119 client-side marketers drawn from the ANA membership, as well as 80 media sellers and 75 agencies drawn from a proprietary Nielsen database. The respondents have an average of 17 years of experience in the industry.

The survey findings are featured in the white paper “Optimizing Integrated Multi-Screen Campaigns” which is available from Nielsen and ANA.

About the ANA

Founded in 1910, the Association of National Advertisers leads the marketing community by providing its members with insights, collaboration and advocacy. ANA's membership includes more than 525 companies with 10,000 brands that collectively spend more than $250 billion in marketing and advertising. The ANA strives to communicate marketing best practices, lead industry initiatives, influence industry practices, manage industry affairs, and advance, promote, and protect all advertisers and marketers. For more information, visit http://www.ana.net, follow us on Twitter, or join us on Facebook.

About Nielsen

Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA, and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.